Rosenthal: NJ to undergo surgery

According to FoxSports’ Ken Rosenthal, Nick Johnsonwill undergo surgery on his right wrist. The Yanks’ erstwhile DH will be out until at least July as he recovers from the procedure. Over the weekend, we reported that the odds on Nick’s needing surgery were around 50 percent, and apparently, his wrist did not respond to a cortisone shot. Johnson, off to a slow start during his second stint for the Yanks, was hitting .167/.388/.306 before the injury, and the Yankees will now turn to Juan Miranda and a rotating list of veterans to fill the designated hitter hole. The Yanks’ lineup, as I wrote last week, is better off with a set DH, and I have to wonder if Brian Cashman is at all tempted to kick the tires on this guy.

For Nick and the Yankees, a wrist injury is both not surprising and very disappointing. If one major injury has plagued Johnson throughout his injury-plagued career, it has involved his right wrist. He missed the entire 2000 season with a right wrist injury and had surgery on the same wrist in 2008. He also suffered a left wrist injury in 2002 that carried over to 2003. Without strength in his bottom hand, the left-handed Johnson may find it hard to hit for much power if he returns later this summer.

Update (4:15 p.m.): Making this news official, the Yankees have confirmed surgery for Johnson. He’ll undergo the procedure tomorrow, and the team anticipates that it will be at least four to six weeks before Johnson resumes baseball activities. “This is not a quick fix,” Joe Girardi said to reporters. “This is going to be a while.”

Well, the Nick Johnson experiment is officially a failure. I hope we get to see a lot (of a good) Juan Miranda.

andrew

As long as he comes back in July and gets on base 40% of the time the rest of the way, he’ll still be valuable.

http://twitter.com/joero23 The Honorable Congressman Mondesi

Agreed. The “Nick Johnson experiment” is not a failure on May 17th.

Dick Richie

It’s not a failure, it’s a huge failure.

http://twitter.com/joero23 The Honorable Congressman Mondesi

And if he comes back in July, OBPs >.400 for the rest of the regular season, and contributes to a long playoff run (hopefully ending in a championship)?

Season ain’t over yet. Not by a long-shot.

bonestock94

I don’t think I’m out of line here, this is not an injury that you can come back from without skipping a beat. I doubt he’ll come back in August or whatever and play like he did last year. That’s if he even comes back at all.

http://twitter.com/joero23 The Honorable Congressman Mondesi

Maybe, maybe not. The point is just that, on May 17th, we don’t know.

bonestock94

We do know that he’ll have sucked or been unavailable for the majority of the season.

It’s May 17th. Let’s see how the season plays out before declaring anything to be decided already.

FrankFernandez

It’s his second major wrist injury and the first one cost him the entire 2008 season. I doubt he’s coming back this year.

http://twitter.com/joero23 The Honorable Congressman Mondesi

Ugh, all I’m saying is that it’s early in the season and we should wait until the season is over before we make these final evaluations and declare who was a success or failure. I’m not telling anyone Johnson is going to come back and be awesome, I’m just acknowledging the uncertainty and how early it is in the season. I don’t understand why that’s a concept anyone has a problem with.

bonestock94

Eh, fair enough, I’m just totally negative on the whole thing. One clutch play in October could change that, kinda like Marte I guess.

Jammy Jammers

Denial?

http://twitter.com/joero23 The Honorable Congressman Mondesi

Saying that it’s May and we should let the season play out before making final evaluations of players or transactions is now considered “denial” around here. That’s just great.

All so that we can move Posada to DH for his walk year and split the C job between Cervelli and Montero.

Something that we wouldn’t be able to do if we signed Johnny Damon to a 2/14, btw.

mike c

a 1/8 would have probably gotten it done

Andrew

It got it done for Detroit but there is no clear indication it would have gotten it done for NYY; then again, hasn’t this horse already turned to dust from all the beatings?

Chris

Possibly, but the question is when would that offer have been accepted by Damon. Certainly not before January. By that point, and reasonable alternatives for a DH would have already been signed. I get the feeling that if he were willing to accept 1/$8 when NJ signed, then he could have had it. But he wasn’t, so the Yankees moved on.

1/8 would not have worked with the Yanks. Its too much of a paycut for the guy who made ‘THE PLAY’ of the world series. Its the same reason Abreu would never have signed with the Yanks for 1/5 like he did with the Angels. The players are able to take a paycut for a new team and part of it has to do with pride.

I liked the Nicky J roll of the dice, sucks though. Ofcourse the 5.5 M is a good cushion to land his feet on. This might spell the end of any major league deals for Nick. He has to sign on minimums and incentives from now on.

Salty Buggah

So if Miranda/Thames platoon stinks it up, who do we get? Trade? (Dunn?) Sign someone? (Dye?) Rotating DH?

Salty Buggah

Well, you answered the Dye part in the updated version of the post. Refresh Fail.

Matsui’s putting up a .241/.320/.406 (97+) on the left coast at the moment. And, unlike the young Granderson’s early season struggles, there’s significant reason to believe the decline is real and permanent.

Passing on Damon to sign Johnson may not have worked, but passing on Matsui for Granderson looks like the correct decision (despite Grandy’s temporary injury absence).

http://www.secondavenuesagas.com Benjamin Kabak

Passing on Damon to sign Johnson may not have worked.

To nitpick: Didn’t Damon pass on the Yanks’ 2-year/$14M offer as you noted above? I wanted Damon back to DH this year, but he seemed to want to play in Detroit.

I wanted Damon back to DH this year, but he seemed to want to play in Detroittake nothing less than two full guaranteed years at above-market rates from the Yankees as a point of personal pride, a standard he did not require from other teams and backed off of when it was clear that he had no market at his desired price point and begrudgingly accepted a closer-to-market contract with Detroit as his last resort.

Fixed.

bonestock94

I was thinking of a scenario in which Matsui was passed for Johnson. If I remember correctly, Cashmoney said that Matsui was never even considered due to health concerns. As for the triple slash, yea I guess it could be the end.

TheLastClown

Really though, Damon passed on the Yankees.

I think all parties involved: Cashman, Damon, & Boras understand it was a regrettable decision to leave the extra Yankee year on the table.

NJ was the best of the 2nd best options. He didn’t work out. But no one passed on Damon.

Obviously this is no news to you, or anyone hear, but I hear the “Cashman passed on Damon” line too much.

Meh, if I’m gonna sign a guy who has been retired that long, I’ll just sign Gerald “Ice” Williams and call it a day.

ZZ

There are teams with a lot bigger holes than the Yankees and Dukes has not even gotten a sniff from anyone. There is likely a very good reason for that.

This team has the 2nd best record in baseball and is comprised of a group of guys who are very close. No reason to introduce a punk like Dukes into the mix when the reward is probably not even very high.

Joe D.

tsjc reads my mind. As soon as Grandy/Nick went down, my very first thought was: No one has signed Elijah Dukes yet. Is he that toxic that a deal at the major league minimum (or close) isn’t worth a shot?

Thomas

I wonder if Bonds is still in game shape?

JMK

He can still hit lawn chairs with the ball. Which is more than Pat Burrell can say.

The Yankees should totally trade for Jack Cust

Hey, I have an idea!

Bxbomber

And we couldn’t give Matsui a mil and a half more a year? Or Vlad Guerrero for the same amount? SMFH…..

And all for a fucking OBP….

bonestock94

Vlad and Matsui both were big risks for injury too…still are.

http://www.secondavenuesagas.com Benjamin Kabak

And Matsui has pretty much sucked all year outside of the first two weeks of the season. That’s some revisionist history.

mike c

ben, you really think matsui is going to suck all year? i can understand doubting his health but if his knees stay under control, he should start hitting. he struggled last spring too fwiw

i can understand doubting his health but if his knees stay under control,

Knees like Matsui’s don’t stay under control. That’s like saying “If Shaq can still jump, he’d be a solid player”. Matsui has no knees. None.

…he should start hitting. he struggled last spring too fwiw

He was a year younger last year.

mike c

johnson has no wrists. he’s also hurt, matsui isn’t. and he’s been getting better as the year goes on, similarly to last year. i’ll put money on matsui “not sucking” this year however you want to quantify that

i’ll put money on matsui “not sucking” this year however you want to quantify that

And I’ll put my money on Matsui not staying pain-free all year, and suffering at the plate because of it.

mike c

well that’s going to happen regardless, it did last year too. i’d think matsui might even suffer less at the plate this year, as he should have a little better understanding of his body after the 2009 season and the knees

If, back in December, we could have fastforwarded to mid-May to see which one would get hurt and which one wouldn’t, then this statement would have value.

We couldn’t, so it doesn’t. Moot.

dalelama

Some of us predicted the NJ outcome precisely…NJ a good non-hitting designated hitter with a good eye and very delicate, a fragile flower…it was really a no brainer not to sign him

Chris

How would you quantify not sucking? Currently his OPS+ is 97 (wRC+ is also 97). That would be fine from a good defensive CF or SS, but not from a DH. In fact, I would consider that sucking. I expect him to improve, but I’m not sure that he’ll be anything more than ok.

andrew

Career splits though say that Matsui is a slow starter. Yea, he’s a year older, but he’s also more likely to heat up in the coming weeks, like he does every year. I don’t think they’ll be getting numbers from Matsui’s prime, but it’s very reasonable to expect him to produce better than what he’s doing right now.

http://www.secondavenuesagas.com Benjamin Kabak

I don’t think he’s going to suck all year, but I don’t think he’ll be nearly as productive as he was last year. Maybe being in the Bronx as the full-time DH would have suited him, but the Yanks are intimately familiar with his medicals. There’s a reason they weren’t that interested in bringing him back at a price the two sides would have agreed upon. I generally buy that.

He’s slandering OBP as being a stupid reason to pick Nick Johnson over Matsui or Guerrero. It’s not a stupid reason. Picking an OBP wizard over two inferior OBP producers to be your #2 hitting DH is not a poor decisionmaking process, it’s a smart one.

OBP is not irrelevant, it’s super important. Possibly the most important stat of all.

This past week, crusty old curmudgeon and noted baseball old-schooler stick in the mud George Will himself advocated for the Triple Crown of BA/HR/RBI being changed to the new Triple Crown of OBP/HR/RBI.

I shit you not.

mike c

i don’t know man, statistics don’t really mean as much when you’re not able to play and produce regularly.. OBP does mean a lot as a hitter but if you’re missing half the season all that goes out the window. say what you will about matsui being an injury risk and old, but a 1 year DH spot is the easiest position to fulfill, especially when your aging megastars are going to get half days as DH too. bottom line is simply cashman rolled the dice and busted, the risk/rewards were there, i’m guessing he has more faith in the bench to keep the team together, which he rightfully should i suppose, we’re still stacked in every direction

OBP may be relevant and an certainly an important statistic for the number two hitter, but what use is that OBP when the guy can’t stay healthy enough to play in games?

Bxbomber

““And all for the most important metric for a #2 hitter to have a talent for, which I am needlessly slandering for no apparent reason… some stat which means shit now that he’s gone for over a month”

Version #2

TheLastClown

The value of OBP is completely independent of NJ’s health status.

dalelama

But the value NJ’s OBP is not independent of his health status. Actually I think OPS is a much better stat.

http://twitter.com/rebexarama bexarama

Noooo not OBP!!!!!

Matsui has been not great this year, if he was on the team people would be whining about what a sentimental moron Cashman is. Plus, there were a bunch of reports that said he wanted to go somewhere where he could play the field. Bad, bad idea. If Matsui would only stay with the Yankees if he could play the field, even just every now and then… I wouldn’t have wanted them to do that, honestly. He’s not just a bad fielder like Hawpe or Thames, it actually injures him to play the field.

mike c

people were saying that last year too

http://twitter.com/rebexarama bexarama

Right, only he didn’t play the field in even one game IIRC, and it worked out pretty well.

mike c

yeah i don’t think anybody likes seeing the guy in the OF, i’m sure the angels know they are playing with fire letting the guy field.. i suppose their risk is our reward at this point though

http://theyankeeu.com Matt Imbrogno

So, while I was originally against it, I say just call up a third catcher and make Jorge the strict DH until Johnson returns.

http://www.secondavenuesagas.com Benjamin Kabak

Jorge will probably throw a fit, but I’d lean toward that. The only problem — and it’s a big one — is that as Cervelli regresses to his offensive mean, the lineup will suffer without a true DH. Jorge behind the plate + DH >> Jorge DHing + Cervelli/Chad Moeller playing everyday.

http://theyankeeu.com Matt Imbrogno

Yeah, I agree with your latter point. If that happened, then perhaps they could stick Posada back behind the plate (at least he’d be saved a few weeks worth of catching) and go with a full time DH platoon of Thames/Miranda.

Andy In Sunny Daytona

Trade for Giambi.

Kidding……or am I? Dun Dun Dunnnnnn

http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa

So now they have about two months to evaluate what they have in house before the trade deadline. They’ll also know a lot more about how NJ is doing by then as well.

This team got by with Melky Cabrera and Zombie Bernie Williams in the corner outfield spots for three months after Matsui and Sheff got hurt in 2006, and they didn’t have this pitching staff to fall back on. Relax, they’ll be fine.

I’d still like to demote Greg Golson, DFA Jon Albaladejo, and sign Jermaine Dye, though. I think we’re fine, but we have a vacancy and Dye/Dukes/Delgado/Sheff would be low hanging fruit and fairly cheap at this point.

Give him 2M. Season’s almost 25% over anyway, he’s gotta take a discount of some sort. He can sign for a prorated amount and still have the nice shiny full-season number as the contractually stated amount, like what Clemens did a few years ago.

I wonder if they’d do that, though. That team doesn’t need to salary dump Guillen to get out from his salary; they can afford his salary. They need to eat his contract and trade Guillen for a good prospect. They need talent way more than they need salary relief.

Remember, they wouldn’t move Brian Bannister last year to save a few bucks, they wanted a legit player for him (and thus, got nothing).

bonestock94

Totally forgot about that. If the deadline comes around and Guillen comes back down to 09 numbers maybe the salary dump scenario becomes more realistic. But then who the hell would want 2009 Guillen…

Exactly. By the time the Royals get into actual “Let’s get the balance of this horrible contract off our books for a nonprospect, we’re desperate” mode, it’ll already probably be too late and nobody will want his regressing ass.

CJ

Royals players of interest include David DeJesus and Alberto Callapso, not the garbage players/contracts of KC please.

Chris

How would Gullen’s .310 OBP help this team? I’m confident that given regular playing time, Miranda can exceed that.

Reggie C.

Trade for Derrek Lee.

I think the Cubs would enjoy the salary relief & Lee has improved his last 10 games out.

damon’s obp is over .400, cheap homers aside, the guy still looks good at the plate

TheLastClown

But Damon was not one of the options bypassed en route to NJ.

mike c

he wasn’t? i thought he was being considered, but the cashman/boras feud ended reasonable discussion early on. the one big thing i do like about not having damon though, is letting gardner prove his skills as a starting OF. with damon on the team, he wouldn’t be the everyday LF

Damon wasn’t an option because he (through Boras) removed himself from the conversation.

As in “If you’re going to make an offer that’s a penny less than Johnny made last year, don’t bother making an offer”.

mike c

yeah but come on. every agent pulls stunts like that, and boras should be expected to be the worse of them. the fault is on both sides for not working out a reasonable deal. both parties came away from the negotiations losing

Johnny and Boras bluffed. The Yankees called their bluff. They bluffed again. Cashman called again. They bluffed again. Cashman called again.

Johnny made it eminently clear he wanted a two year minimum deal at above market rates, or he was walking. Cashman made it eminently clear he wasn’t going two years or above-market on a DH, no matter who the hell his name was.

Both parties didn’t lose. Boras and Johnny lost, because they overestimated how much we needed a DH (as evidenced by the fact that we have all these other options still available if our Plan A of Nick Johnson staying healthy failed) and thought we’d cave. We didn’t. We made the right decision.

mike c

how can you say its the right decision when the johnson gamble busted though? i suppose you can say the emergence of the everyday gardner is the net reward, but when you’re talking about signing jermaine dye as our DH we obviously missed something in our contingency planning

TheLastClown

Unfortunately you can’t be so results-oriented.

Meaning you can’t 2nd guess a decision because unpredictable factors cause the decision to turn out worse than expected.

Baseball is a great example of this, as is poker. Sometimes you make the right decision, and get burned for it. It doesn’t change the fact that the decision was sound to begin with.

how can you say its the right decision when the johnson gamble busted though?

Because evaluating a decision with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight is unfair. We didn’t KNOW that Nick would get injured when we signed him. What we knew was that there was a possibility he’d get injured, we evaluated the risk and reward, and made a sound decision that didn’t result in the most optimal outcome. Nothing wrong with that.

but when you’re talking about signing jermaine dye as our DH we obviously missed something in our contingency planning

No, that’s not correct at all. When we’re talking about signing Jermaine Dye on May 17th after Nick Johnson got injured, that doesn’t “obviously” mean we missed something in our contingency planning. What it means is, we appropriately planned for contingencies, since we surmised that if Nick went down, there would still be Dye-like bats available as replacements on the open market and we didn’t need to sign anyone else as a backup plan in advance of a Nick injury. Backup plans are still readily available. Contingency plans are in place and are eminently desirable. Nothing was evaluated incorrectly.

http://www.thechuckknoblog.com/ JobaWockeeZ

SSS. He’s never done it in his career, he won’t magically do it now.

steve s

I’m replying to 2 statements made by TSJC above.

Comment 1: You are really soft-soaping the situation in retrospect when you say that there was a “possibility” Johnson would get injured. Do the words “inexorably destined” ring a bell?

Conmment 2: I’m not sure that you are remembering the Damon negotiations that well either. Cashman knows how to romance someone he wants and he didn’t do it with Damon. The oft-repeated 2 years at $7MM was never a real offer that was actually made; what happened was Boras advised what he was asking and Cashman went elsewhere saying it was more than the Yanks were going to do; they never countered, negotiated in good faith or made an official “offer”. When Damon called the Yanks up and tried one last time before signing with the Tigers (at the urging of Arod) the Yanks still didn’t make him a good faith offer. Cashman did everything consistent with not wanting him back. I’m ok with that but not ok with the position that tries to make it look like, in retrospect, that Damon rejected good faith negotiations with the Yanks that simply never happened.

I’m ok with that but not ok with the position that tries to make it look like, in retrospect, that Damon rejected good faith negotiations with the Yanks that simply never happened.

In my defense, if that’s directed at me, that’s never how I’ve portrayed it. The Yankees did have good faith negotiations with Damon, with one important hardline: a one year deal. We value flexibility highly. Central to Nick’s deal is the ability to dump him next year if he sucks or if we want to move Posada to DH. Johnny balked at that short contract, so we never entertained him all that much.

steve s

I do not recall any real discussions concerning a hard one year deal. How did the 2 years at $7MM morph into that? My issue with your characterization with what happened to Damon was that there was no real bluffing going on here as Cashman simply didn’t want Damon back. Cashman was all too willing to publicly make it known that he “rejected” Boras’s demands when, in fact, he really had no intent on signing Damon at any price.

Tom Zig

What were our options?

Johnny Damon: Too many $$ and too many years. Overplayed his hand. Eye “fluttering” early in the year +Massive slump in September + Injury in the WS = Pass

Matsui: He had to have his knees drained 3 times last year and that was considered lucky. He is quite the injury risk.

Sheff/Dye/Delgado: Ridiculously old, slow on foot and with the bat.

http://www.thechuckknoblog.com/ JobaWockeeZ

Can’t conclude that yet.

But as noted above I would like a replacement short time tough. I’d be down with Dye.

Mike

I bet Seattle would give up Griffey for a box of sunflower seeds and a rosin bag to be named later. I’d take him over Dye just for the lefty bat at DH.

That lineup is still probably the best lineup in the majors. They can weather the storm until more teams become sellers at the trade deadline and they know more about how NJ is recovering from surgery.

WIlliam

It’s amazing how much better Grandy makes the lineup work.

TheLastClown

I’d flip it so Swish is in the 2 hole, DH platoon bumped up to 8th, and the unstoppable Brett Gardner in the 9 hole.

But yeah, that lineup is the tats.

WIlliam

You want to go the Figgins/Angels route?

TheLastClown

What do you mean by that?

WIlliam

Many times Figgins was batted 9th by the Angels to create a double leadoff spot. This would be similar to what you’re suggesting with Gardner.

TheLastClown

Well, I mean out of 4,168 PA, he only got a total of 361 PA from the 9 spot. So I don’t know about “many times.”

For me, its more about having Swish & his OBP skills in the 2hole than anything else.

mike c

the posada DH lineup with swisher in the 2 is still my favorite

CJ

wow batting the DH ninth, that’s good lineup/roster management. Since the DH hits for the pitcher he should bat ninth. Brilliant.

mike c

did anybody see the size of the lip NJ had packed right after the boston game when he left with the wrist injury? it looked like he had a squirrel in there

runnerkmf

I’m with Mike. If Griffey were available for next to free, what would be the harm in bringing him in for a physical? In the clubhouse with the Yankee vets, who knows what might happen.

WIlliam

Why waste a roster spot? Pena is probably more valuable at this point.

http://www.secondavenuesagas.com Benjamin Kabak

I’m not sure if the idea that Pena is “probably” more valuable than Griffey speaks more about how bad Pena is or how bad Griffey has become.

Not to mention, the dude didn’t want to come to NYY back in the day because of how they booed his dad. He’d never come to play here if he didn’t have many bullets left in his gun, he’d be setting himself up for a massive failure and a self-fulfilling prophecy of hours of electroshock therapy.

Riddering

I think being the clubhouse with the young guys might be more helpful for Griffey at this point.

Joba: You ever heard of Red Bull, Junior?

http://twitter.com/rebexarama bexarama

TCWMA. (mega-awesome, for the record.)

Hangoverologist

I just realized that if the Yanks sign Dye and he performs well up until the deadline, perhaps they could flip him to a contender and grab a prospect or two. This of course depends on how NJ’s recovery from surgery goes up until then.

Nick Johnson is probably done for the year. The Yanks are not saying that because they are buyers now and don’t want to over pay if it is known that Johnson is done.

I can’t see having wrist surgery and being back playing in 10 weeks.

mike c

yeah i wouldn’t want to see him back on the field unless he could hit the ball well. obp aside, we need him to be able to pick up and hit the ball on demand

ZZ

This is really not that big a deal. Cashman knew what he was getting into when he signed Nick Johnson. Everyone has to remember that Nick Johnson was Plan C for the DH spot. He prioritized Damon, but was not going to wait until Damon was the last man standing.

That is Boras’ M.O. He tries to drag these things out as long as possible as teams get more and more desperate and then takes them to the cleaners. Matsui and his agent were very smart. They didn’t want to wait on Cash, so they signed a fair deal for him in LA as soon as possible.

If Granderson and Swish are healthy there is much less worry over this. Injuries are going to happen and if their DH is the worst they suffer this year, then that is a pretty damn good year injury wise.

The Yankees have the 2nd best record in baseball, an amazing rotation, and plenty of offense (very likely still the best in baseball) if the top of the order does what they are supposed to do.

Jermaine Dye was one of the worst if not the worst players in baseball the 2nd half of last year. He also wants to play the field and is still holding out for a decent chunk of cash. My grandma has more bat speed than Pat Burrell does right now. Elijah Dukes is the biggest punk in baseball. The Yankees don’t need to go shopping at the baseball junkyard.

Now you use the DH spot to rest the vets and see what you have in Miranda. Then you reevaluate at the trade deadline. If no better option presents itself, you are still in great shape offense wise.

Damon played hardball, thinking that the Yankees needed him and would meet his price.

Cashman played hardball, knowing that the DH role on this team that is already pimpshit everywhere else is a pretty superfluous position that doesn’t need to be manned by any type of a sure thing, so he can bet on a boom/bust lottery ticket (Johnson) and if it busts, adjust midseason with relative ease. So not only did we not need Johnny, we didn’t even really need Nick Johnson either. He’s icing on the icing™.

Cashman’s balls were harder. Advantage, Bombers.

—————-

(“It’s like icing on the icing” is a registered wordmark of Pinstripe Brewery™, ® 2010. All rights reserved.)

CJ

Forget Damon. Think Matsui, Vlad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUvg7Empjfg Captain Jack

I still hope he gets someone to DH rather than just rotating out regulars and giving shitpiles like Greg Golson and Ramiro Pena more PAs…Tampa’s tough, the Yanks need all the help they can get.

Phranchise

is juan miranda gonna actually get some play time? cause it seems like girardi wants to keep doing the rotating dh thing, which is fucking dumb as hell. if you wanna give someone a day off, then give them a real day off. dont just put people at dh randomly and play a backup every day.

mike c

has anybody thought out maybe putting cervelli as DH from time to time, at least until the bat cools down?

i heard sterling pushing catalanotto from the mets right after the NJ injury, who they actually just recently DFA’d.. not sure if that move makes a lot of sense but he does play the OF as well and could be a nice bench guy

Washington will probably be a buyer, not a seller. The wildcard is most definitely in play, they may be the second best team in the NL East.

TheLastClown’s Amazing Technicolor Poopy Pants

I hope they make it, I really do.

I also hope Strasburg doesn’t go for immediate security w/ one of those now much en vogue long term deals these young studs are signing these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUvg7Empjfg Captain Jack

Everytime my dream of seeing Dunn in Pinstripes comes close to happening the baseball gods shit all over it.

DreDog

I wouldn’t mind if Strasburg gets locked up in the NL East with the Nats for a long, long time. Keeps him away from the Yanks.

CJ

Wow, didn’t see that coming. RAB was blinded by the OBP. Now, they need another bat and will continue the search until having to overpay for one in July. Burrell, Garko, Taveras all DFA’d this week. Ryan Garko come on down. Or, bring up Montero to DH everyday with Posada whipping his “I don’t run out grounder’ rear end into shape.

So, Nick Johnson needs surgery on a previously injured wrist and Javier Vazquez still can’t handle the pressure of NY. Good job Cash. Keep trying the same thing and expecting a different result.

TheLastClown’s Amazing Technicolor Poopy Pants

Oranges, Apples. Keep Trying Amazing Guy!

Zack

“Posada whipping his “I don’t run out grounder’ rear end into shape”

He’s a 38 year old catcher

CJ

Posada would be whipping the rear end of Jesus Montero who decided not to run out a ground ball about ten days ago…

Mattchu12

My vote: Use Posada as the DH and Cervelli as the everyday catcher.

Even if he reverts to a normal back-up catcher’s offensive production, the value of his defense and game calling skills (or at least relationship with the pitchers) is excellent. I can envision a situation where we see Posada and Montero picking up the bulk of the DH/C at-bats with Cervelli playing one or twice a week.

DJH

Lohud had Giradi saying this.

Headed for surgery, probably tomorrow. After that, it will be another four to six weeks before he can even pick up a bat. “Then you’re talking about substantial time after that,” Girardi said.

So if your talking substantial time after 4 to 6 then that means he’s got no shot at July.

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The Gleyber Torres Watch

Gleyber's season is over. He suffered a torn left (non-throwing) elbow ligament on a play at the plate on June 17th and had Tommy John surgery on June 21st. He is expected to be ready in time for Spring Training 2018. The Prospect Watch Curse strikes again!